Huntley school plan

To the Editor:

“If the discussion wavers to a couple million here and a couple million there …” That’s a quote from Don Drzal, president of District 158’s school board, talking about $39 million of state-funded improvements to Huntley High School.

“Wavers,” Don? That strikes me as a rather casual word for a school board president to use when discussing “a couple of million” dollars, not to mention your additional $12 million renovation budget.

While our state already has given the district $39 million, that money plus the $12 million came from taxpayers, district residents included. A 19-member committee has created a plan to use those funds to accommodate a projected high school population of 3,000 by 2019, a plan to “provide the best high school we can afford,” said John Burkey, the district’s superintendent.

“The best,” John? Why not something more realistic, something that this time around will give us more bang for our tax bucks. The best the board was able to do in years past was to create classrooms that were designed for just 24 students each, now crammed with 30. How farsighted was that?

But why will Huntley High even need more or larger classrooms when, according to Anne Pasco, chairwoman of the Blended Learning Department, “students (will) complete course work online and outside of school with face-to-face meetings with teachers during the week?” And what will the district’s well-paid teachers do with all their spare time when they’ll meet their students so infrequently?